One article does not make a person guilty: Varun Gandhi

PTI|

Updated: Oct 13, 2017, 08.51 PM IST

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"My point is let us not tarnish the future of one young man or anyone. Just because somebody has said one thing or media has shown it.

HYDERABAD: Allegations do not make a person guilty and one should not take any "absolutist" position based on an article, BJP MP Varun Gandhi today said, referring to a report on the business of BJP president Amit Shah's son Jay Shah.

"My broad generalisation is just because one person has written an article does not make a person guilty... without evidence and without giving them a fair (chance)," he said.

Reacting to a question by a student of NALSAR University of Law here that the government has absolved Jay Shah without an investigation, Gandhi said, "I am not defending anybody...I am not attacking anybody and I am not speaking about one person."

"My point is everybody needs to have their say if there is any discrepancy then that is a different matter. But, just because one person has raised a finger against somebody does not make anybody guilty," he said.

"My point is let us not tarnish the future of one young man or anyone. Just because somebody has said one thing or media has shown it.

"You and I both know that media can often be wrong... Their interpretations can sometimes be incorrect. So my point is let us not take any absolutists position... sooner or later everything becomes transparent," Gandhi said.

A report in a news portal claimed that Jay's business fortunes zoomed after the BJP came to power in 2014.

Reacting to a query on Rohingya Muslims, Gandhi said, "When I talk about the Rohingya, I said keeping national security interests is paramount, do a case by case analysis of them and see if there are any wrong elements, and if they are then don't let them in.

"But if you find innocent people and they are truly in miserable position then please consider taking a humanitarian view. If you find they are not a great threat to India as some people may have suggested then give them asylum.

"I don't think there is anything controversial in what I am saying... My stand is not against anybody... my stand is a very basic humanitarian stand," Gandhi said.

He added, "We don't have a national asylum policy in India. So, every case is treated in an ad-hoc manner. When you treat things in an ad-hoc manner, political partisanship comes to fore. Have a national policy in place as a country which is applicable to everybody."

In an article written in a Hindi daily, Gandhi said India must give asylum to Rohingya but before that analysis of genuine security concerns should be done.

To another query, Gandhi said "when farmers, labourers and certain sections are concerned we will have to give them social protection".

He said he is in favour of loan waiver on certain conditions and in certain regions where there is no water.

"I think there should be an agricultural plan for the country. Because agriculture is a state subject, the local and state governments should be making district-wise plans for agriculture and farmers should be briefed... we need to have decentralised agricultural planning," Gandhi added.